Foo - Rant: Who are the biggest slobs? I vote for smokers.

Have you ever noticed how many cigarette butts litter the road. They're small, and they're so prevalent, you just sort of filter (no pun intended) them out. Butt if you notice, they're everywhere. I mean, how often does a smoker use their ash tray. And if they do, doesn't matter. When it fills up, they'll dump it in the road at some stop light. Just take a look in the gutter at a long stop light. How hard is it to use a trash can? Sheez. :rolleyes:

And this guy (http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/5655.0.html) is worried about banana peels.

I prefer non-filter banana peels. Full body yet bio-degradeable. By the way, Bob Mionske has been riding, racing, writing, and defending the rights of cyclists in the courtroom for as long as my memory can recall.

Rednecks, Rednecks, Rednecks!!!! They are by far the biggest slobs!

say hi to Martha...

Have you ever noticed how many cigarette butts litter the road. They're small, and they're so prevalent, you just sort of filter (no pun intended) them out. Butt if you notice, they're everywhere. I mean, how often does a smoker use their ash tray. And if they do, doesn't matter. When it fills up, they'll dump it in the road at some stop light. Just take a look in the gutter at a long stop light. How hard is it to use a trash can? Sheez. :rolleyes:

And this guy (http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/5655.0.html) is worried about banana peels.

I have a rhetorical question that should answer your question. What would you rather ride through, a pile of butts or broken beer bottles?

To me the biggest slobs are the jackasses who fling their beer bottles out of their car windows. A cigarette butt will eventually degrade and at least to bikers is fairly benign although unsightly. Broken glass on the other hand will never degrade, is harmful not only to cyclists but also to cars, pedestrians and animals.
Given a choice of "aesthetics" or potential harm I would not be all that worried about the aesthetics.

(Please pardon the following rant):
While there is no doubt that watching a smoker sit in their car, smoking, with the window down, the cigarette hanging out of the window while idling their car waiting to pick up their kids from school (in a posted no smoking area), finally pitch their smoldering butt into the street, is the infuriating and clear sign of a completely inconsiderate mentality, this is no reason to vilify all smokers. Just because evidence abounds of piles of cigarette butts littering the entrances around doorways, or the physical presence of smokers crowding around doorways making it impossible to enter a building without inhaling their foul by-product, does not mean all smokers are inconsiderate pigs.

If there is a smoker out there who does not exhibit these abbhorant behaviors, who keeps their cancerous effluent to themselves, then I say bravo for keeping your "lifestyle choice" to yourself, and for not being the inconsiderate slob portayed by roadbuzz.

To the other smokers who do flaunt their revolting habit in the faces of others, who do exhale their "lifestyle choice" into the lungs of others, and those who carelessly flick their burning stubs all over the ground, I say shame on you. You belong lumped in with those littering slobs who leave their fast-food drinking cups littering the mall parking lot, who pitch their beer bottles from their pick-up trucks, whose ill-breeding and ill-rearing are evident with every soda can and pop bottle that they cannot be bothered with to ensure that it makes it to an appropriate refuse receptacle.

Certainly broken glass, tacks, nails, screws, etc. are perhaps all greater physical road hazards to the cyclist, but the others are visual hazards that detract from the joy of traveling at cycling speeds, exposed to nature. All littering is disgusting and inconsiderate to one's fellow human beings, regardless of whether it is cigarette butts outside a building in an urban setting, or a bullet riddled, rusted stove, abandoned just off of the roadside, out in the rural woods.
(Thank you for your attention. Thus concludes this evidence of years of pent up irritation).

Texans - at least the ones in the DFW area. I've never seen so much trash all over the place anywhere else I've been in this country. Amazing!

They have signs on the highway that say, "Real Texans don't litter." Based on that, there's no real Texans in the Metroplex!

The biggest slobs are folks who do a poor job of raising their children... children who go on to become adults who can't spell, can't form proper sentences, can't speak in complete sentences, aren't rational, aren't educated with bad tastes in food, clothing, music, etc... reproduce too frequently; wear too much polyester; play the lottery; drink too much; only think about themselves and their own problems; are petty; cheap; use and support the use of guns; need dental work and don't get it; wear mullet's; too much makeup; gastly haircolorings; think patriotic thoughts at the expense of rational thinking; choose politicians and political party affiliations solely based on what their also equally uninformed and uneducated parents supported and belonged to; name all their kids with the same first letter; think Popular also means Good/Great; thinks being religious means simply attending church; is full of bigotry, intolerance and small-minded thinking because they refuse to think for themselves; refuses to think for themselves; buys into thought-processes that are manufactured by the government/marketing firms and/or paranoid types; thinks war solves anything but more war; drives a car to the gym; makes fun of fat people who are trying to get fit; are stereotypical without first trying to be themselves; wears anything that advertises a company or corporation without either getting it for free or being financially compensated for wearing it--only exception being if it is a small independent company that you wholeheartedly support and believe in; listens to others opinions on art and lets it influence their views; meets someone and deeply disagrees with everything they say and stand for but cannot keep smiling and staying pleasant throughout the encounter; asks for "advice" but spells it "advise"; doesn't understand the usage of "they"/"their" and "there" or "two"/"to" and "too"; never uses a spellchecker; doesn't think that how they represent themselves in the cyberworld ISN'T a reflection of how and who they are in the non-cyberworld; doesn't ever ride their bike in non-cycling clothes; worships celebrities of any genre; doesn't know what genre means... and won't look it up in an off or online dictionary; waits for someone else to do the work or job; doesn't own a dictionary; doesn't own a thesaurus; doesn't know what a thesaurus is; hasn't read Walden; doesn't know what Walden is; thinks that Gyro is pronounced Giiirow and in any case doesn't or won't pronounce it-"Yeero"; doesn't drink at least one really good bottle of wine a year; doesn't dabble in betterment for the sake of curiosity and/or betterment itself; watches more than 3 sporting events per month live or on television; associates themselves through their local sports teams; cannot explain their irrational fears and dislikes rationally and with openess to change; looks in the mirror and doesn't also see the faults; lays on a bed on their back while talking to someone standing upright behind them on the floor and doesn't crack up laughing watching the other persons eyelids close upward instead of downward; can't laugh out loud at themselves at least 3 times per day-everyday; finds people who wear their pants down around their arse line and too baggy... funny and silly; doesn't see that rappers and hiphoppers aren't also wearing a costume or uniform; actually thinks that they are kinda or sorta like Lance (or any other first rate cyclist) because they use the same bike... or helmet... or gloves... or shorts... or shoes... or jersey... or kit, etc

and last...

doesn't wash their hands regardless of the event when exiting a bathroom.

Holy run on sentence batman! ;)

Other then that, well said. The slobs that really get me are those who toss trash into the street, be it a cigarette butt, a beer bottle, or a half way eating sandwich.

Personally, I find people who eat meat in front of other people to be quite disgusting. It's your personal choice, but the smell of it makes me vomit.

They have signs on the highway that say, "Real Texans don't litter." Based on that, there's no real Texans in the Metroplex!

Didn't the whole "Don't Mess With Texas" slogan actually start out as an anti-littering campaign?

A cigarette butt will eventually degrade and at least to bikers is fairly benign although unsightly.

Unless of course it sets off a 20,000 acre blaze...

Unless of course it sets off a 20,000 acre blaze...

Jeez, man - everyone knows that firefighters set fires, not smokers! :rolleyes:

-chris

Holy run on sentence batman! ;)

Other then that, well said. The slobs that really get me are those who toss trash into the street, be it a cigarette butt, a beer bottle, or a half way eating sandwich.

I wondered how long it would take for someone to notice that too!

:D :eek: :p ;)

It did not escape notice, just comment.

Please insert one "and" in the appropriate place, and combine the one sentence paragraph with another paragraph, in my previous post. ;)

Personally, I find people who eat meat in front of other people to be quite disgusting. It's your personal choice, but the smell of it makes me vomit.

People who vomit in front of me while I'm trying to eat a meatloaf sandwich or a good steak.

:D

People who vomit in front of me while I'm trying to eat a meatloaf sandwich or a good steak.

:D

Good one! :)

I'll also add a vote for smokers in enclosed public areas, and Coors light drinkers.

It did not escape notice, just comment.

Please insert one "and" in the appropriate place, and combine the one sentence paragraph with another paragraph, in my previous post. ;)

Your use of the lowly comma disagrees with core elements of basic English.

Then again, who is commenting?

:eek: ;)

Personally, I find people who eat meat in front of other people to be quite disgusting. It's your personal choice, but the smell of it makes me vomit.

Give it time. At the federal agency where I work, they just stepped up the tyranny of the minority by increasing the anti-fragrance jihad. It seems about one-tenth of one percent of the employees have complained that perume and even deoderant "fumes" offend them, so the other 99.9% of us have to conform to the demands of a tyrannical minority.

So I said "Hey, what about us vegetarians? The smell of burning animal flesh emanating from the cafeteria is sickening. The smell sticks to the clothing of those who even get close to the cafeteria, and those that eat cooked animal flesh reek of it, making all vegans and vegatarians ill."

I was told that they would look into it! Why must the majority conform to the peculiarities of the minority? If people can't work here becuase of their own, personal likes, dislikes, oddities, they can work elsewhere.

So I said "Hey, what about us vegetarians? The smell of burning animal flesh emanating from the cafeteria is sickening.

Is that the view of all vegetarians? I'm far from vegetarian but I do like vegetarian dishes... call me an omnitarian... I'll eat anything. I particularly find it interesting that when I cook up a gardenburger, it smells quite close to a meatburger. I somehow think this was intentional. And to be honest, I dislike having the smell of food meat or otherwise or anything for that matter stuck in my clothes.

A two pack a day smoking habit generates approximately 18.66343 cubic feet of cigarette butt waste per year. At that rate, if the butts aren't thrown out the window or dumped on the curb, the cab of the smoker's pick up truck will be completely filled with butts when there are still 36 payments left to be made on the vehicle. That doesn't hardly seem fair now does it? ;)

A two pack a day smoking habit generates approximately 18.66343 cubic feet of cigarette butt waste per year. At that rate, if the butts aren't thrown out the window or dumped on the curb, the cab of the smoker's pick up truck will be completely filled with butts when there are still 36 payments left to be made on the vehicle. That doesn't hardly seem fair now does it? ;)

Clearly this points out the need more interior room in order to absorb the butt volume across the life of the financial obligation to the vehicle. I suppose they would be a condidate for a Ford Excursion? :D

Your use of the lowly comma disagrees with core elements of basic English.

Then again, who is commenting?

:eek: ;)

Needless to say, there was also the glaring omission of mentioning the failure to refer to The Elements of Style by Strunk and White for guidance in the creation of proper written English.

1/2 ;)

Cyclists are definitely the biggest slobs. With lycra-clad arses blocking the road, often smelly and clearly with a disregard to the right cars have to the road.

;)

Cyclists are definitely the biggest slobs. With lycra-clad arses blocking the road

I didn't think my arse was that big. :(

I have a rhetorical question that should answer your question. What would you rather ride through, a pile of butts or broken beer bottles?

Hey! I'm not saying that one class of litterer is better than another. Their litter may be small and tire friendly, but anyone so lame they can't so much as find a trash can and use it is pretty weak, IMO. Yeah, the beer bottles and cans are bad... drivers have *a need* to immediately eject those from their vehicles for fear of the law, wives, parents, or something. There are nearly as many pop bottles, and another popular trash item is the bag of trash from the fast food drive through.

Wonder what they do when the trash can in their house fills up? Dump it in the yard? Actually.... I know for a fact some do... a short distance from the house. :rolleyes:

p.s. to Don d.: I wasn't downing Bob Mionske, just commenting on the guy worrying about his banana peel (and the law that mentioned grass clippings, but not butts, for that matter).

I kinda agree. I wouldn't think twice about tossing a banana peel into the grass or bushes alongside the road, but I would not drop cellophane or food wrappers.

One of my rituals when a tubular tire had served it's life(had it's third puncture) was to snake the road with it(leave it on the side of the road in a conspicuous place like a fire hydrant or tree limb). So I guess I am a SLOB!

So I guess I am a SLOB!

I still say there is a difference. You would at least be inconvenienced by the rubber carcass. What is the inconvenience to the smoker who fails to use his ash tray? It's not sticky, it won't leak on the floor, it's small... It's almost like littering is the objective.

P.S. Cool graphic... I am implicated by my avatar!